


The Three Times You Kissed Me and Left, and the One Time you Stayed

by intertwinedpinkies



Category: The Fosters (TV 2013)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 13:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4748870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intertwinedpinkies/pseuds/intertwinedpinkies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title says it all: Three different times Connor kissed Jude and left, and one time he decided to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Three Times You Kissed Me and Left, and the One Time you Stayed

Jude had never been camping before, and he wasn’t particularly looking forward to going. He still hadn’t made that many friends at Anchor Beach, and the one friend he did have he wasn’t talking to. It’s not that he didn’t want to talk to Connor, in fact it was all he really wanted to do, but if Connor wasn’t willing to fight his dad for their friendship, Jude wasn’t going to talk to him.

So Jude just stood by Lena as she checked off the names of the kids who had already been signed in by their parents and gotten on the bus. Jude figured it was better for him to stand awkwardly by his mama than to sit on the bus and be made fun of by the other kids. That was one of the downsides of not talking to Connor anymore, even though he knew Connor still tried his hardest to defend Jude. Jude appreciated that, but it wasn’t enough for him to completely forgive Connor.

There were only five minutes left until the buses were supposed to leave and Jude noticed there was still no site of Connor, not that he was looking for him or anything. The chaperones began to pack all of the camping equipment onto a bus and began to board them themselves.

Lena turned to Jude and said, “Why don’t you go get on a bus? I’ll be on right after I sign in this student.” She took the pen in her hand and pointed towards the car pulling into the schools parking lot. Jude nodded and headed towards one of the buses that wasn’t full. He stepped on and took the one of empty seats towards the front of the bus. He didn’t pay any attention to the other kids and stared out the window. Jude watched as Lena signed the last kid in and point towards the bus he was on, obviously telling him where to go. He didn’t see who it was until the boy turned around and started walking towards the bus. Connor waved a goodbye to his dad as he walked onto the bus.

Jude began to panic as Connor made his way towards the empty seat next to him. He quickly turned his head so he was looking out the window again, acting as if he was paying no attention to Connor at all.

“Is this seat taken?” Connor asked Jude, who turned his head and shook his head, acting like he didn’t care that Connor chose to sit next to him.

In his head Jude was freaking out. “Why did he have to sit next to me? There are so many other seats around us. Or why didn’t he just go and sit with his soccer friends? His dad doesn’t have a problem with them being friends with Connor.” Jude thought.

Connor shifted uncomfortably in his seat after he sat down. He was trying to think of a way to ease the tension between him and Jude, but was unsure how to. He continued to move in his seat when Jude ended up asking him, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. The seat’s just really uncomfortable. I was hoping to take a nap, but I guess that’s not happening,” Connor said. Jude offered him a weak smile at his comment. He knew his friend was trying.

Despite what Connor said he fell asleep within five minutes of the bus pulling out of the parking lot. Jude thought that would happen, especially since Connor had a talent for being able to fall asleep almost anywhere. He also figured it was better that Connor fell asleep because it would save them the awkwardness that would come with trying to talk on the hour and a half bus right to the campsite.

-

45 minutes after leaving the school, Connor was woken up by someone shaking his body. He groggily opened his eyes and turned to see Jude standing up and a fairly empty bus. Checking his phone he saw that they hadn’t even been on the bus for an hour and a half. He was about to ask what was going on when Jude beat him to it.

“The bus broke down. Everyone had to get off and wait outside.” Jude told him.

“Oh. Okay.” Connor grabbed his backpack, stood up, and walked off the bus with Jude following right behind him. They made their way to the other group of students and waited while Lena to take attendance to make sure everyone was accounted for. While she was taking attendance, the students where murmuring and complaining about how long it would take until they would get back on the road and towards the campsite. There were whispers of it taking anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours. Not even Lena knew for sure how long it would be.

“It could be worse.” Connor said to Jude, who was just staring into space trying his hardest to ignore the boy standing next to him. After about a minute Jude realized just how hard it would be to ignore Connor while they waited, or even the whole camping trip, and opened his mouth to speak.

“How?” Jude asked. Connor’s face broke out in a huge smile, knowing he was getting his friend back.

“We could be sitting in math class.” He joked, and Jude let out a single laugh and smiled back at Connor.

“True.” Jude responded.

“Hey I brought my PSP, if you want to play.” Connor said as he unzipped his backpack and pulled out his game.

“Yeah, sure!”

They spent the rest of the time waiting for the bus to be fixed playing video games, catching up, and just enjoying each other’s company. Eventually the bus was fixed and everyone got back on and headed towards the campsite.

-

When they got to the campsite, everyone grabbed their things and walked towards the chaperones to get a tent to set up. The kids all found their partners who they would share a tent with. Jude and Connor had their tent and were walking towards their assigned spot, when Jude stopped walking.

Connor turned around and asked, “What’s up? Why’d you stop walking?”

“Is this okay?”

“What do you mean?” Connor questioned with a confused expression.

“I mean we chose to be partners weeks ago. Before-“

“-Before my dad.” Connor interrupted, understanding what Jude was thinking now. Jude nodded confirming what Connor said. “Well technically my dad only said I couldn’t spend the night at your house. And he’s not even here right now, so if I’m breaking any rules he won’t find out.” Connor said with confidence.

“I guess.” Jude told him warily. He couldn’t see anything wrong with Connor’s logic, but he knew with his luck this would come back to bite them somehow.

-

After setting up their tent, the whole class went for a hike and then swam in the lake nearby, and ended the day with dinner and a campfire. It was a day filled with fun, but it exhausted many of the chaperones, who decided to call it an early night and sent the kids back to their tents.

Back in their tent, Jude and Connor were wide-awake. They decided they would play Connor’s PSP for a while before deciding to go to sleep. Unfortunately the two had played it too much earlier in the day and the battery died after playing for just 15 minutes.

“Well this sucks, I’m still not tired.” Connor complained.

“Neither am I, what do you wanna do now?” Jude asked.

“I don’t know.” Connor shrugged, “What do you want to do?”

“Umm, we could play the question game, if you want.” Jude suggested.

“What’s that?”

“We just go back and forth asking each other questions and answering them, it helps pass the time really quickly.” Jude told his friend.

“Okay, but you should start.” Connor said. He shifted so he was sitting ‘crisscross applesauce’ facing Jude. Jude moved so he mirrored Connor

“Okay, what’s your favorite season?” Jude asked, trying to start the game off easy.

“Probably summer because there’s no school and no homework! What’s yours?”

“Spring. I just loving seeing everything bloom. It’s like everything has a fresh start after a really bad winter.” Jude said thinking about his own life. He had to go through a lot before he finally found his new beginning with the Stef and Lena.

“What was it like?” Connor asked his friend. “Having a really bad winter I mean. Like what was it like before you came to Anchor Beach.”

“Umm-“ Jude began; not thinking the game would get this deep that quickly, but was interrupted by Connor.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I was just curious.”

“No it’s okay. I guess the short answer is that it sucked, especially at the beginning. Callie and I had just lost our mom, and our dad, well my dad, was put in jail, which was scary enough for a six year-old. Add onto that that we had to go live with these people we had never met. They expected us to be perfect kids who didn’t cause trouble, and well you know Callie. But that first house was pretty good compared to the later ones. They got progressively worse. I would get beat up by some of the older foster kids, or sometimes even my foster parents, but Callie was always there to protect me. I don’t know what I would have done without her.”

Tears began to form in Jude’s eyes and a smile appeared on Jude’s lips, but it was one of sadness. He remembered all of the times Callie was there for him, and how grateful he was for her. But that didn’t take all of the pain that was attached to the memories. He continued, “The last house I was in was definitely the worst before coming to Stef and Lena’s. Callie was in juvie, so I was all by myself. And my foster father, he uh, really didn’t like me, especially after Callie destroyed his car. It was just really bad.” Jude avoided Connor’s gaze and focused on the ground. Tears began to fall from his eyes slowly. He didn’t look up until he felt a hand on top of his own.

“Hey, it’s over now, right? You have Stef and Lena and your whole family.” Jude sniffled and smiled at his friend. “And you have me.” Connor whispered as he squeezed Jude’s hand. The two boys just sat there, smiling at each other, neither of them wanting the intimate moment to end.

The first to move was Connor. But instead of moving back towards his sleeping bag, as Jude expected, he moved closer to Jude. He scooted forward until their knees were touching, and when they were touching he slowly moved his upper body closer to Jude’s. Soon their faces were only inches apart, and they were staring into each other’s eyes. Both of them were breathing heavy in anticipation. Eventually Connor closed the gap between them and kissed Jude. The kiss was sweet and chaste.

They broke apart and looked at each other for a minute trying to register what had just happened. Again it was Connor who was the first to move. He moved back towards his things and grabbed his shoes and began to slip them on. Connor stood up and said, “I, um, have to go to the bathroom.”

“Wait. But, what about the-“

“I really have to go Jude.” Connor interrupted and unzipped the tent and was gone.

Jude let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He figured that Connor would be back soon, and so he tried to stay awake so they could talk about what had happened between them. He needed to know what the kiss meant. But Connor took longer than Jude anticipated and he fell asleep before he returned to the tent. Neither of the boys mentioned the kiss for the rest of the trip, and Jude had resolved that it was just going to become a secret between friends.


End file.
